xlviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
establishes itself the Ducks rapidly disappear. It is said also to be very inimical to the presence of 
the White Swan *. 
Another bird that bids fair to be well acclimatized is the Cape or Egyptian Goose ( Chenalopex 
(egyptiaca). Just before I left the colony one of these Geese was shot on Te Aute Lake, and sub- 
mitted to me as a supposed addition to the New-Zealand Avifauna. Recognizing the species, and 
being satisfied that the individual bird was a wild one, I wrote to Sir George Grey for the purpose 
of ascertaining whether he had brought any of these Geese from the Cape. The information in 
reply was exactly what I had expected. Sir George Grey brought eight or ten of these birds with 
him to the Colony in 1860. They bred freely at the Kawau, and many of them crossed over to the 
mainland. Judge Rogan informed Sir George that he had seen as many as four shot at the Kaipara 
during his residence there. The fact that it has already found its way to the Hawke’s Bay district 
shows how this species is establishing itself in a country where certainly all the conditions are 
favourable to its existence. 
ORIGIN OF THE NEW-ZEALAND AVIFAUNA. 
I have already said enough about the ancient and existing forms of bird-life in New Zealand to 
convince the most casual reader that we have within this comparatively small area a very remarkable 
ornithological province. In some respects it is quite unique, and, taken altogether, it is perhaps, to 
the student of biological history, the most interesting insular district on the face of our globe. In his 
admirable work on ‘The Geographical Distribution of Animals,’ Mr. Wallace has given, in a large 
woodcut, an ideal scene in New Zealand, representing some of its more singular forms. Referring 
to this, he says, “ no country on the globe can offer such an extraordinary set of birds as are here 
depicted” ; and in his elaboration of the subject, he has thrown more light than any previous writer 
on the origin and development of these peculiar ornithic types. 
Looking to the fragmentary character of the New-Zealand fauna generally — the almost total 
absence of Mammalia and Amphibia, the phenomenal development of wingless birds that existed till 
quite recent times and are now represented by the various species of Apteryx, the highly specialized 
forms of non-volant Rails, besides the many other endemic genera of land-birds, and the great paucity 
of reptiles and insects — we must conclude that it is but the remnant of an ancient fauna, perhaps the 
most ancient in the world, which formerly occupied a very much wider area of the earth’s surface. 
Professor Newton, in his Address to the British Association last year, called the attention of 
naturalists generally to the extreme interest which attaches to every portion of this unique fauna. 
Remarking on its origin and development he says: — “ One thing to guard against is the presumption 
* It is popularly supposed that the Black Swan and the White Swan will not live together on the same waters ; hut the 
fact is that no systematic attempts, so far as I am aware, have yet been made to acclimatize the White Swan, either in 
Australia or New Zealand. Years ago, Baron von Mueller showed me a small flock of White Swans commingling with their 
dark cousins on a fine sheet of water in the Melbourne Acclimatization Gardens. A few tame pairs have been placed on ponds 
and ornamental waters in the South Island, and these have bred freely enough notwithstanding the constant presence of the 
Black Swan. In the North Island the experiment has not yet been tried. Sir George Grey was unfortunate enough to lose 
one of the beautiful pair presented to him by Her Majesty, or the North Island might have been ultimately stocked from Kawau. 
I am now arranging to send out some of these noble birds as a present to the Ngatiraukawa tribe, in order that they may be 
placed on the Horowhenua Lake, where the other species is already established, and it will be interesting to note their future 
history. 
